Now streaming on Hulu
Showrunner: Michelle and Robert King
Starring: Julianna Margulies, Matt Czuchry, Archie Panjabi, Graham Phillips, Makenzie Vega, Josh Charles, Christine Baranski, Chris Noth
At first glance, or perhaps on a description, The Good Wife shouldn’t really stand out the way it does. It’s from the procedural family, the kind of show that you assume you can catch up with in syndication on TNT down the road. While not a cop procedural, a la Without a Trace, Cold Case, or the CSI family, The Good Wife is a law procedural. While each episode does move forward the overall plot, it also contains a case-of-the-week that makes it perfect fodder for those Sunday afternoon black holes of binge-watching, like you know you do with Law & Order: SVU from time to time.
So why does The Good Wife seem so much better than those other shows?
First, the setup for the big picture plot works. The series opens with a press conference with State’s Attorney Peter Florrick (Noth) standing behind a podium, apologizing for a sex and corruption scandal that lands him both in prison and in disgrace, an embarrassment for our protagonist Alicia (Margulies), Florrick’s wife. We quickly fast-forward 8 months and Alicia is a junior associate at Stern, Lockhart & Gardner, a seemingly top Chicago law firm that, despite its status, is struggling with the Great Recession (Season 1, after all, aired in 2009-2010). We’re instantly set up with several angles of a storyline. One partner, Stern, is rarely around. Lockhart (Baranski) and Gardner (Charles) occasionally butt heads over control, but it remains realistic, courteous, and settle for cheap drama (cough, Suits, cough). The realities of the recession create an easy second storyline – a competition between the two best junior associates: Alicia, returning to law after years of raising her now teenage children, and Cary Agos (Czuchry), a young, ambitious, ivy league type. At some point, the firm will have to decide which to keep, because it’s the 2009 economy, y’all. Despite the setup as obvious adversaries, I thought Alicia and Cary’s relationship was realistically cordial. Instead of cartoonish one-upping, they gravitated more toward empathy toward the other for being put into such an unfortunate competition. And then there’s Alicia’s home life. Her son Zach (Phillips) and daughter Grace (Vega) attempt to handle their father’s disgrace with maturity they don’t exactly possess. And then there’s Peter, who spends the season appealing his corruption charge and working to relaunch himself back into not only freedom but the public sphere as well.
The second reason The Good Wife works so well is that, after setting these characters in motion, it writes them in believable, interesting ways. The decision-making is logical, for the most part. Like I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t cheapen itself for a water cooler moment. It just tells its story, which is refreshing in this particular genre. It makes for a remarkably consistent first season. Few episodes stand out as ratings ploys. The cases and legal dilemmas seem fresh. Alicia’s struggles, whether it’s with courtroom process or ethical concerns over working for guilty parties, are interesting to watch.
Finally, the third reason this show stands out is in its casting. Perhaps thanks to the influence of executive producers Ridley and Tony Scott, The Good Wife not only has an excellent main cast, but a revolving door of all-star guest stars as well. Whether it’s Martha Plimpton as a state’s attorney who transparently uses her pregnancy to her advantage during depositions, David Paymer as the friendly but mocking judge Alicia first encounters, or Dylan Baker as a pretentious snob who may or may not be murderous, the guest stars are all excellent.
The best guest stars help us learn more about our main cast. Baranski’s Lockhart is a stock character early on, a tough no-nonsense boss, but her scenes over several episodes with Kurt McVeigh (Gary Cole), a ballistics expert who dresses like a cowboy, are some of the season’s best. Their dynamic doesn’t mean much in the scope of the show, but it’s top-notch when they’re together. SL&G in-house investigator Kalinda Sharma (Punjabi) is an early cast favorite, thanks to her frankness and friendship with Alicia. Her character gets a little more depth thanks to her interactions with guest stars James Carpinello and Jill Flint. Some of Alicia and her fellow lawyers’ most memorable moments are interacting with the judges, almost all of whom are recognizable – Denis O’Hare, Peter Riegert (Boone from Animal House!), Tony Goldwyn, and, hilariously, Ana Gasteyer, who has strange demands for lawyers in her courtroom.
But who am I kidding? A show doesn’t function without a star, and Julianna Margulies seems made for this role. The balance of grace and toughness she brings to Alicia is something I can’t imagine many actresses can pull off. She’s the star here, and she’s the biggest thing that sets The Good Wife apart from other procedural, late night syndication fare. You care about this character, in both the case-of-the-week stories and the big picture story. She is the gravitational center of the show, and while her professional story is a bit more interesting than her personal one, dealing with her family situation and predictable feelings for Will Gardner, her boss, both work well enough that you never get irritated when the show focuses on one over the other.
The Good Wife was lauded in its first season, earning many award nomination. Margulies, Baranski, Baker, and Alan Cumming, who plays Eli Gold, a political fixer who comes to Peter’s aid in the second half of the season, were all nominated for Emmys. Punjabi actually won for best supporting drama actress, an impressive feat against Baranski, Rose Byrne (Damages), Sharon Gless (Burn Notice), Christina Hendricks, and Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men).
Is it Watchlist-worthy? Yes, but be careful – a binge-watch is dangerously likely.